Greatest Demonhood
A.N.- quick update, this chapter takes place about a week after the first chapter, and by my calculations that puts it right around the end of chapter 2- so that's when this is happening relative to the story
Chapter 4: Meeting the Number One's
"Well at least the academy is still standing- and considering I have to watch over demons that vandalise the place on a daily basis, that's about as good as could be expected." Raspberyl's Father said as he groggily walked into the main market of the school while lighting up his third cigarette for the day. Just as he entered, a small crowd of fans was quickly forming behind him, cheering for his return and waiting for him to do something honor-student inspiring.
Ugh... don't these damn demons have anything better to do than follow me? On the other hand, on the off-chance that I get into a fight that I can't finish, I could use some of them as shields... but since I know that pretty much only the overlord can possibly match me, and he's... uhh... incapacitated, that can't happen... On another note, I wonder how Raspberyl's doing...
Although he didn't know it, Raspberyl's Father was sub-consciously trying to run away from the crowd behind him, so at about a human's average sprinting speed, he ran into the giant prinny statue; completely crushing his freshly-lit cigarette in the process- much to the amusement of the crowd behind him as he fell to the ground after leaving a considerable hole in the base of the statue from the crash.
Completely unfazed by crashing head-first into the statue other that falling to the ground, Raspberyl's Father stood up, brushed himself off, lit a new cigarette, and surveyed the damage- the hole wasn't as big as he would've liked- it didn't cause the statue to crumble, nor did the hole even go all the way through the base of the statue. Furious at the statue, Raspberyl's Father again ran into the statue through the crater he had already made, head-first this time to avoid having to light another cigarette- this time he went right through the statue, forming a hole just a bit larger than he himself.
As glad as I am that I won't have to run into that damn eyesore again, still it's not enough...
Raspberyl's Father gracefully leaped onto the head of the statue, made a quick slice through it with his sword, then he quickly leaped off of the statue again. As he fell to the ground, the massive stone beak of the statue followed him to the ground, cleanly severed from the rest of the statue exactly as he had cut it. Just a moment after he had landed, it crashed onto the solid floor exactly where he was, leaving a massive crater and an even more massive cloud of dust choked the air in the immediate vicinity, granting Raspberyl's Father a chance to escape the crowd of followers he had gained.
Quickly the crowd bursted into an uproar, most of them clamoring to find their idol in the dust, none of them succeeded as Raspberyl's Father had already proceeded leaps and bounds beyond anyone's grasp.
Not much good just running away will do, I think I'll get a disguise...
Even though he has only been in this market-place on one recent occasion, Raspberyl's Father navigated blindly yet flawlessly to the armor store as if he had a 6th sense that told him where it was and everything that was in his path. Once there, he swiped some cheap brown mage robes with a hood, which he held a little too close to his face as he inspected what looked like a coffee stain, and the cheap fabric bursted into flames and turned to ash within seconds; undeterred, Raspberyl's Father simply picked up a slightly more expensive robe, this time a light blue robe that was hopefully non-flammable.
"Hey! Who are you- nevermind, I don't care, I'm just gonna kill you for trying to steal from me!" A voice called from behind as something pointy poked itself into Raspberyl's Father's back, and despite the fact that they were obviously yelling and they couldn't have been more than a few feet away, Raspberyl's Father could barely hear whoever it was in this chaos and dust.
"If you think you can stop me..." Raspberyl's Father said as he spun around and swiftly disarmed his would-be opponent in an efficient, practiced fashion; just now taking in full view of his threatener- the armor store owner, as expected. "A shame, if I were to kill you in this commotion, no one would ask any questions- as far as anyone else is concerned, this mini-riot had a casualty." Raspberyl's Father grinned.
"Wh- What? But... but..." The shop owner stammered, panicking that he was obviously about to be killed with his own sword.
"Jeez, don't cry about it, people die all the time- especially demons- when you wake up in the Nurse's Office, tell no one you saw me, or I'll be back- maybe." Raspberyl's Father said as he made a precise strike with his unarmed hand at the store owner's temporal lobe, not hard enough to kill him, but certainly hard enough to knock him unconscious.
After putting out his cigarette on a set of very expensive looking set of armor, Raspberyl's Father quickly fled the area, without even enough time to light a new cigarette.
No one reported seeing Raspberyl's Father the rest of that day, but he certainly made more appearances to certain coice students.
"You realize, of course, that this is all your fault." Mao said accusingly.
"Me? How is this my fault?" Almaz replied, quite startled at Mao's sudden accusation.
"Because, idiot, if your useless hero title succeeded in letting me kill my father, I would be overlord and I could've gotten your garbage hero title back by forcing my heart open- or more likely, I would have no need of it then, so I'm sure my heart would've thrown it out by then. Case in point- Your. Fault." Mao explained.
"As logical as that sounded, I don't think having a title would actually make you any stronger- just make you look stronger." Raspberyl's Father said from the corner of the room he elected to show himself from, after of course he lit a new cigarette, of course.
"Who's there? Ah, it's you!" Mao gasped, himself in awe that Raspberyl's Father would so rudely invite himself into his room- just as an honor student would.
"I remember all of the many thousands- probably millions- of demons that I've slain that were of higher standing than myself- Demon Generals and Overlords included- logically disproving that a title would make you stronger." Raspberyl's Father said simply- case closed, or so he thought, he had no idea how stubborn Mao was.
"Well duh! Nameless demons kill nameless overlords all the time; but who inevitably kills the strongest, most evil overlord in the end? A hero, of course! So without a hero title, no one has a chance of beating my dad!"
Hmmm actually, that kinda makes logical sense- if you think about it. Usually demons won't dare fight an overlord who is pretty widely known as the strongest overlord- despite how inaccurate that is in this case- so who would dare sum up the courage to fight so powerful a being? A foolhardy human hero, of course; and ignoring all of the probably thousands of nameless heroes that fail in this task, one of them will probably succeed... maybe... or rather, ENEVTUALLY one must succeed... Needless to say, one doesn't HAVE to be a hero to kill a strong and evil overlord- so common sense kinda beats out the logical thought process this time...
"Whatever, this argument seems to be a moot point anyways- even with a hero title, you still failed to defeat the overlord; and now you got a useless hero title that makes you an outcast to the rest of the student body- so I assume getting rid of it is the next step?" Raspberyl's Father said, quickly shrugging off his thoughts and blurting what came to mind first.
"Your reputation is well deserved to know how the general honor student body operates after spending so little time here! Yes, every minute I have this... corrosive title, I feel my normally great honor-student mind slowly rot into something disturbingly delinquent, maybe even worse! And I suppose my human slave gets something out of getting his useless title back." Mao explained.
"Ah, right- your human slave..." Raspberyl's Father shifted his attention to Almaz, who took half a step back from the great demon, just in case. "I know we've met before... your name was... Alex?"
"Uhhh it's Almaz." Almaz said, rolling his eyes- he was less than impressed.
"Right, right; I'll call you Alex anyways- did you know that's the name of some fool overlord who thinks himself the god of destruction? Many funny stories I have of this fool and myself- I will tell you later though. Care for a cigarette?" Raspberyl's Father asked, evidently gleefully reminiscing about something violent as he lit a new cigarette after throwing his old one somewhere in Mao's room- Almaz turned down his offer.
"So, why are you here?" Mao cut in.
Raspberyl's Father took a minute or two of deep thought while puffing on his cigarette to come up with his answer- nothing.
"Uhhh, no reason, I guess; but I do like to know what's going on in this school, as I am temporarily in charge-"
"WHAT? Are you saying you're making yourself the Overlord?" Mao gasped in fear, his dream was practically crushed at that very moment- he knew he was no match for Raspberyl's Father.
"Nah, just think of me as the... temporary principal of the academy- which reminds me, I gotta slap some sense into my vice-principal to make sure he'll follow my orders; who is that, anyways?" Raspberyl's Father inquired.
"Oh, that's Mr. Redshirt- kinda tall guy, red jacket, kinda long blonde hair-" Almaz answered helpfully.
Immediately the image of the only teacher who tried to kill him a week ago popped into Raspberyl's Father's head, but he never asked his name, so he wasn't certain. Raspberyl's Father figured that asking him would probably lead to a lie, but bribing a prinny would easily clear things up.
If he's indeed the vice-principal, then I've got some work to do wit him...
"Sounds like a real fool- anyways, I'm gonna go... 'discipline' some students for entertainment, so don't be surprised if you never see some of your classmates again. Later-" Raspberyl's father said as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Clever- he openly admits he's murdering students for fun, but not so open that unwanted attention is gained! Bravo! He may be a problem later, but for now he is a shining example and inspiration!" Mao said, quite starstruck at this display of legendary demonic behavior.
"If you say so..." Almaz sighed, accepting that this was probably normal behavior for the school's "unique" administration.
After a whole week of not seeing her father again after Parent's Day, Raspberyl quickly settled back into her normal schedule of hard studying and finishing homework early for her next day of classes, since it was again Sunday- never did she expect to see him until at least next year's parent's day, if ever again. Studying quietly in her room alone, she was too possessed in her studies to notice the shadow in the corner slowly creeping up to her. Ever so slowly her father creeped up to her, ever so careful not to make any noise. It seemed he took hours to slither his way up to her, finally purposely giving himself away by blocking her light and breathing heavily into her hair, just for fun.
Once her father sprang into the light, Raspberyl immediately spun around and smacked him in the cheek with the spine of her massively thick book as forceful as she could. In her sudden attack, Raspberyl's eyes were practically cemented shut, but when whatever she hit didn't budge an inch from her strike, she had no choice but to open her eyes. Taking in full view of her father with his evil smirk as he spit out a tooth into his hand, Raspberyl shrieked and quickly leaped into the furthest corner away from her father.
"Your first instinct is to attack your visitor? How... honor student- some delinquent you are." Raspberyl's Father couldn't help but laugh, popping his lost tooth into his mouth and swallowing it, along with his cigarette just to gross Raspberyl out- which was largely overshadowed by her fear and surprise by his sudden appearance.
"Wh-Wh-What are you still doing here? You should've left last week! You did leave last week!" Raspberyl stammered, masking her nausea quite well.
"I go where I please- duh." Raspberyl's Father said condescendingly, coughing up smoke, but disguising it quite well by turning away briefly.
"Why are you here? Don't you got some honor-student activities that need doing? Some property needs vandalising or something?" Raspberyl asked angrily.
"While I appreciate your enthusiasm for the greater arts of my work- no, there isn't anything I'd rather be doing than spending time with my dear daughter." Raspberyl's Father said with a smile as he didn't light another cigarette.
"Well don't thi-... WHAT? Could you repeat that?" Raspberyl was certain she didn't hear the ending of that last statement right.
"Oh, I'm sure you heard me say it the first time; and I think that some of my vocal cords were destroyed from saying that so I don't think I can possibly repeat it even if i wanted to." Raspberyl's Father joked; although his throat was burning quite painfully, it wasn't because of what he had just said.
There's no way he's serious- he's just trying to lure me into some kind of trap to humiliate me, or set me on fire again! Or WORSE! I'm not falling for it- once a liar, always a liar. Raspberyl thought, not budging an inch from her corner.
I'm sure she doubts this sudden change of heart- which is understandable, since it is kinda a lie- no, it is a lie- albeit a very well-intentioned lie; I would much, MUCH rather be torturing some innocent child or be playing dodge-prinny with someone who I stapled to a brick wall; but messing with my daughter's mind with good intentions is alright too.
"Well whatever you really want, I know it can't possibly be healthy for me; so please leave." Raspberyl pleaded, taking a single step out of her corner toward her father- just a single, small, shaky and very uncertain step, but it was progress.
"Fine, fine- I gotta get to swaying the general student body away from overall revolution in all of its forms; even away from, say, everyone turning delinquent and completely turning this school around, quickly making this school like some kind of a model school with some kind of... scholarship program; but since there is absolutely no chance of that happening, I think I'll just take another week-plus long vacation." Raspberyl's Father said as lit a new cigarette and disappeared in his signature cloud of smoke.
Given a moment of silence to ponder what had just happened, naturally Raspberyl's first reflection was about what her father had said- that he would rather spend time with her than cause general chaos. Still, she couldn't believe that he would even lie about that, since it was clearly a lie- there were so many other things that he could've said that were both honest and tortuous, but this was just... unthinkable! He could've eaten another cigarette! Rapberyl became very nauseous at the thought.
A knock on the door awoke Raspberyl from her semi-conscious sickly state- it was Kyoko and Asuka, oddly right on cue after her father had just left.
"Good day my lady, shall we group-study like we do every week?" Asuka asked cheerfully.
"Are you alright my lady? You look a bit pale..." Kyoko asked, both were obviously completely unaware of what had just transpired.
"You're never gonna guess what just happened..."